This week Ross Hughes pines for some 90’s magic to be brought into the this decade and asks one simple question……
“WHERE HAS ALL THE ACTION GONE?”
So there I am, sitting there with a cup of tea in my hand and all of a sudden I had an urge! Ok your dirty minded people not that kind of urge, but one of to watch a film from my vast DVD collection and here is the killer- it was not a horror I fancied!. Yes, now this does not happen to me rarely, I mean I probably if possible watch a horror every night but now again out of the blue I just fancy a different genre. Sometimes its a comedy, maybe even a drama but this particular night I fancied getting my action juices serviced and I looked up to my seperate collection of gun blazing, high octane thrills and spills. My eyes glanced across the numerous titles until one took my fancy but as I looked a sudden realisation hit my film head, a stunning bit of knowledge that never came to me before…..
“Where had all the action films gone?”
Now I am not saying my DVDs were stolen, I mean there they were in all their glory, from the delights of The Rock, Con Air, Face’Off, Long Kiss Goodnight to even of course Die Hard, but what got to me was that there were no recent titles and then it hit me that I have not bought an action film for many of years. I looked again to make sure I did not make a mistake and two caught my eye-Crank and Shoot Em Up, so yes I have bought two, but again this is quite pathetic for a man who once prided himself on being an action junkie. Has horror finally took over my life and I do not care anymore about the other genres? Nah impossible, because this week I bought the wonderful Bridesmaids so that puts to bed any notion that I no longer buy films that are not of the horror variety. So what has happened then? I pondered this question for a few hours and then it came to me just how much of a poor state the action genre is. It seems to have sunk into the doldrums to what Slash become in the early nineties, an unloved genre, hidden away to the straight to DVD market for fans still living off the past glories of the 90’s.
Make no mistake that era was rich of outstanding films and growing up in that decade I was spoilt for choice to what to watch at the cinema. When John McClane become the wrong guy at the wrong place in the 1988 masterpiece Die Hard, it opened a floodgate of films to come out trying to jump on the bandwagon. We were treated to such wonderful films that I remember being blown away on numerous occasions at the cinema, who needed 3D effects when you had Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson blowing shit up on the big screen.
Die Hard was the pinnacle but many films came close and looking back I can only smile at what we had. Even before Bruce Willis uttered the infamous words “Yippe Ki Yay” we had action films hitting us every week in the video market. Jean Claude Van Damme was a major star back then and I still get a “kick” from watching his two most memorable films Bloodsport and Kickboxer. His success paved the way for Steven Segal to hit the market with his debut Nico and of course his underrated but brilliant Marked For Death cemented the love towards him from action fans everywhere, so by the time Die Hard 2 came out, there were many male egos fighting to be the king of action stakes.
What we were also seeing in the 90’s was a new wave of action hero. The 80’s saw Sly and Arnie flexing their biceps and taking on either a full army or an Alien from the depth of a jungle, the 90’s saw fans seeing normal men fight for their cause. You no longer needed a bulging six pack to fight back and not only did McCane kill a bunch of terrorists in that building but he also killed the careers of two of 80’s biggest stars, simply because fans now believed that they too could save the day. The perfect example of this came in the 1996 movie Speed in which viewers saw a man who once played Ted “Theodore” Logan, become an unlikely hero. I mean if Keanu Reeves can dive under a speeding bus and save the day, then there was hope for us all.
I suppose looking back at that era then it really reached its peak with the 1997 now action masterpiece Face’Off, a film that I could not believe when I sat there in the cinema. I remember sitting there when the final credits rolled, unable to move because I was so happy at what I saw. You know I have seen LOTR and Star Wars at the pictures, but I never had a feeling of joy like I did when I saw Cage and Travolta swap faces, damn it was amazing, spell blinding even and this come not long after the equally good Con Air, two films that starred Cage and for that reason alone is the reason why is career has stalled, because lets be honest, he can make fifty more films and he never beat those two for sheer perfection.
I suppose the rot set in with the arrival of Speed 2, a stupid film where even to this day finds no love with fans anywhere. Since then looking back there as been nothing. Yes there have been the odd glimpse of magic, I mean Crank was bonkers, but there has been nothing of note to sustain the energy level needed for the genre. Action films has been taken over by the arrival of all men in tights, the superhero films are all the rage and I do not really classify those in the action stakes. Yes technically they are “action” but you can not compare Iron Man to Face’Off so that is why I will ignore these films when I am talking about the problem the action genre faces.
It seems there is no confidence within the studio to do action anymore. One of the 90’s most celebrated action writers Shane Black who is currently lined up to direct Iron Man 3 was alleged to want to return to his Lethal Weapon franchise and had a story all mapped out. Excitement filled all the hearts of fans everywhere but there was just no interest from the studio and look at the treatment of TV action icon Jack Bauer. Three years now we have been waiting for a 24 movie and yet there is still silence from all concerned. For me now they have left it too late for a big screen outing of Bauer simply because the TV audience has moved on to other things and there is no longer a market for is character even though the rumours of a Diehard crossover still won’t go away.
Bruce Willis himself saw his last action film Set Up bypass cinema and hit the shelves on a Monday Morning and this is where the market is set at t
he moment for the action junkies. Only last week I reviewed Tactical Force and Assaination Games on the main page with the latter being one of Van Damme’s better films. Van Damme himself shows the frustration there is at the moment within the genre. In 2010 he probably made of the finest action films of the year in the form of Universal Solider 3, a film that had shades of Children of Men pour from the screen. For those who have seen it they will tell you it was one of the best action films in recent years, yet it was released to no fan fare and its still one of the criminally ignored films out there. Even those with no taste for those kind of films who have watched it have admitted that its really good, but still it lies there just waiting to be loved.
What the market needs is a SCREAM film. Like Ghostface did in 1996 to the dying slash genre, action needs a fresh burst of energy from somewhere, a film to come out of the blue and rewrite its own rules. Forget about Die Hard 5 which is just living off its past glory, we do not need sequels to 80’s classics or in fact re-makes, but something new and bold. I want to get excited again, to be thrilled at some spectacular set-piece, I want to feel like a 90’s teenager again like I did when I was first introduced to Caster Troy. There has to be film director out there who has an idea, who is willing to take hold of a genre and shake it back to life.
I sit here waiting for that day to come and when it does I be singing along with Caster Troy to the words..”I’m ready…..ready for the big ride baby!”
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